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Honeybee, United States, 1992

"Tiny titan of U.S. agriculture, a foraging honeybee flies as far as four miles [six kilometers] from its hive to find food—in this case, chicory pollen—yet usually visits only one type of flower during a single sortie. This floral fidelity helps make bees ideal crop pollinators. As the bee gathers food for the hive, the pollen grains that cling to its hairy body will rub off at each flower to produce a seed, fruit, or vegetable."

—From "America's Beekeepers: Hives for Hire," May 1993, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Maria Stenzel